Offering a path to legalization for illegal immigrants could mean a local tax windfall

Copyright 2012: Houston Chronicle |
January 17, 2012

A report by the Greater Houston Partnership estimated that legalizing Houston-area undocumented workers would generate about $1.4 billion annually in tax revenue ("Study sees tax boon in legalization," Page A1, Jan. 11). This report, which was announced during an immigration summit at Rice University, is another piece of evidence in support of comprehensive immigration reform.

The business advocacy group, using data from the Texas Workforce Commission and the Pew Hispanic Center, estimated that there are 132,000 illegal immigrants in the Houston area, earning about $7 billion in 2008. However, because some of these workers earn their wages under the table, the government loses out on money that would otherwise be paid into Social Security, Medicare, unemployment and federal income taxes. Facilitating a path to citizenship would make it easier to collect these taxes, an important goal during a time of tight budgets.

But the benefits don't stop at increased revenue. Schools, courts and law enforcement all spend too much time and money dealing with the undocumented statuses of immigrants who are ingrained parts of the Houston community, wasting resources that our public institutions could actually spend to benefit the public.

And as illegal immigration has slowed to a trickle, now is the time to switch from an agenda focused on preventing illegal immigration to one with the goal of assimilating immigrants already here.

Admittedly, some would rather focus on deportation than integration. They worry that Hispanic immigrants are taking jobs, committing crimes, using government resources and rejecting American culture. And they worry that granting a path to citizenship only rewards the crime of illegal immigration.

This is nothing new. As long as there has been a United States, there have been immigration opponents.

The same rhetoric has been applied to Italian or Irish-Catholic immigrants, some of whom crossed over illegally from Canada. Even Benjamin Franklin worried that German immigrants would be unable to assimilate, and would "Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them."

Just as much as we are a nation of immigrants, we are a nation fearful of immigration. But with every wave of immigrants, there has been the eventual integration that made our nation stronger. Now is the time for that integration.